The Freshers TV Experience

Hello, my name is Henry Johnson and I am a current De Montfort University fresher. I started here on the 24th of September and so far, it’s been a world-wind of enjoyment from fresher’s week to representing De Montfort in Freshers T.V for Demon Media.

Being a fresher there are many stories and memories made in fresher’s week as well as many friends. I possibly made too many good friends with my flat mates as one drunken night they had probably the best idea to make them laugh on my behalf. This idea was to shave part of my leg while I had fell asleep after a night out. I remember dreaming of a dog licking my leg however this was only them splashing the shaving cream down the right side of my right leg. Now I’m a deep sleeper but I impressed myself with not waking up in this one. I did find it rather funny the next day sharing a laugh with them.

Things I’ve donethat don’t include shaved legs in the first weeks at Uni is getting involved with societies. The course I’m doing here is media production so therefore I wanted to join the Uni’s on campus media society Demon Media. I signed myself up for a Demon T.V taster session in which I presented a little show just for the fun of it and ended up liking being in front of the camera quite a lot. What I enjoyed about it so much is the energy you have to bring to it along with the creative ideas about what to do, say and the slight improvisation aspect of keeping the show going. About a week passed (with a few more nights out, but no more shaved legs) and an opportunity came up in Demon T.V to audition for Freshers T.V and represent our De Montfort Uni on a national scale and after getting a taste for presenting I asked a friend to come and audition with me. Another week past (with less nights out and, my leg hair growing back) and it was time for the practices, now at this point I had only been here in Leicester at DMU for about three and a half weeks so I was feeling a little over faced with what I had got myself into. I turned up to the T.V studios in our Queens Media building for the practices finding a few other freshers like myself which made me feel less like a fish out of water. I met my presenting partner Toby. In the practices we got a chance to run through what was planned in our presenting time and I had started to feel better about and more excited about representing the University in Freshers T.V.

The day came it was time to do the show. I knew what I had to do and say and so did toby I was feeling confident I had made mates with a lot of people that were also helping bring the show together and I believe that was a key part of doing something like Freshers T.V or other activities in which you represent the Uni or other society activities is you make a lot of mate and that helps when you have to put yourself out there on camera or on the pitch knowing what the people you’re doing this with are like. How I felt before the show was I had little nerves and more excitement about getting on and trying to make people laugh and making the show as smooth as it can. I felt doing the show was quite natural and I hope it showed through I’m proud to be a part of this and a part of the Uni, representing them on a national scale didn’t quite hit me about its importance until after. I had felt more about not letting these new mates down by messing up.

To the point, I came to De Montfort on the 24th of September we did Freshers T.V on the 25th of October. That’s a month and that month I’ve learnt a lot and I think other freshers would agree that they’ve learnt a lot of communications skills, social skills, how to handle people skills and independence skills. I’d recommend to any current or upcoming fresher to get involved with as many things as possible. Not only do you create friends you create a lot of skills and (it’s a bit cringe but) memories, and this I believe is done by taking yourself out of your comfort zone and being a little fearless.